Body Awareness/Proprioception

[sk8chis]

This may seem like a really dumb question but what would you guys recommend for increasing/bettering/strengthening/developing better body awareness?
I have been skating since forever-ish; started when I was a kid (8-15), I took about 7 years break and then returned 2019 (was off most of 2020 due to broken ankle) so now i'm back full-time and healthy as I can be. However I don't know if it's just from muscle memory or the injury or whatever it is but I feel as if I skate on auto-pilot most of the time. Or maybe Im just old Obviously I wouldn't be able to do most higher-intensity elements like jumps and spins without some kind of body awareness, howeverrrr.... I just feel like i'm missing something. I.e., If I get a correction from my coach or something and have to actually focus on what my body is doing, I mess up even more and it feels like i can't skate for jack sh*t at all. It's really annoying because I know I'm creating small (and dumb) bad habits for no reason and honestly, I mostly want to increase my body awareness not just for my own safety, but to be a better student to my coach. I want to be able to understand corrections and actually implement them (and actually know what was wrong/fixed) rather than just keep trying until they think it's decent enough. If that makes sense.

I skate 4x a week for 2 hours each, and I've technically been back either 6 months (counting consistent skating after injury) or 1.6 years (first return). I'm 24 and aside from the ankle, never had any health issues or other injuries. I have all my singles and kinda-not really working on axel. I'm currently still in physical therapy but it's shifted from focus on my ankle to focus on my back/core/lumbar whatever. I don't have a dancer's background, I think the last time I took ballet was before I was like 8. But I've been wanting to take ballet and contemporary. I'm pretty active now, aside from skating and PT, I've been trying to focus on yoga and pilates. I think thats all the background I can think of. but If anyone else need further info/has questions that will help, please let me know! Also I just started going to the chiropractor cause I was experiencing back pain and they mentioned my pelvic was misaligned by a half inch. Left lower than right, which leads me to lean into my left side more -- the sounds of my coach telling me to lean more into the right is coming back to haunt me. so im not sure if being told this has been me more consciously aware of my body movements but idk.

Also, my biggest issues are my arms opening up too early in my jumps (literally cannot get them to stay checked over the right side), honestly not really knowing where to be on my blade (mostly in spins *side-eyeing camel, sit and backspin*), and my hips not staying checked. My left hip opens up sometimes and its really annoying. Especially in my loop. I'm kind of a perfectionist so I don't really want to start axel or doubles until I have a really solid foundation in my singles, because I know once I hammer this stuff in, doubles will be a walk in the park.

I am pretty active in documenting my skating progress but i'm not sure if it's allowed to post our instagrams, but if anyone would be okay with actually seeing some of my skating, just give a reply (if allowed) or message me and i'll be happy to share.

thank you so much for taking the time to read this really long post!

 

[lorisk8]

I can help with some of the foot/ankle stuff. I’ve worked in physical therapy orthopedics for 16 years. Coming back from a ankle fracture is a lengthy process. The doctors and therapists I work with all tell people just the muscle “reprogramming” if you will takesup to a year for just a standard non athlete. For the strength demands of an athlete an especially one that requires all the intricate foot muscles full body strength like us skaters can take that and then some. You have probably lost so much muscle so keep doing your PT. Hopefully they have you doing ploy and higher level strength and agility stuff.
As far as your other issues do you think you may be clamming up a bit after your injury for fear of hurting it again? Sometimes we get that little block. Just a thought. I can back to skating like You but at the age of 30. I can honestly say there is more fear as an adult Coming back. At least there was for me. Good luck!

 

[sk8chis]

I can help with some of the foot/ankle stuff. I’ve worked in physical therapy orthopedics for 16 years. Coming back from a ankle fracture is a lengthy process. The doctors and therapists I work with all tell people just the muscle “reprogramming” if you will takesup to a year for just a standard non athlete. For the strength demands of an athlete an especially one that requires all the intricate foot muscles full body strength like us skaters can take that and then some. You have probably lost so much muscle so keep doing your PT. Hopefully they have you doing ploy and higher level strength and agility stuff.
As far as your other issues do you think you may be clamming up a bit after your injury for fear of hurting it again? Sometimes we get that little block. Just a thought. I can back to skating like You but at the age of 30. I can honestly say there is more fear as an adult Coming back. At least there was for me. Good luck!

I definitely think it is a combo of both. honestly, I never felt like PT got me "stronger" but more like back to a normal-strong if that makes sense. I know technically it has made me stronger since I couldn't even walk when I first started PT let alone be back to skating as much as I have been but i'm not sure. they never actually increase reps/sets/weights like I've seen mentioned in all of my research. I mostly keep going to keep myself accountable in doing some form of off-ice. I do however have to impingement and some stiffness in my achilles. Sometimes they work on it but generally, either one or the other is always apparent. It'll been almost a full year of PT (i've already hit my year mark for the injury) in May so....im not sure... if it's still like this even now...:/ idk. Funnily enough, the only time I dont feel the stiffness or impingement is when im skating. But I can't also get really good knee bend sooo..maybe it's hopeless lol.

I don't know I'm necessarily scared to fall or be re-injured. I mostly think of the actual incident as a freak accident. I've fallen worse and I've fallen harder, just that one fall ended up not so good. I probably am and I just don't have the mind-body connection but I also think I clam up because I have a fear/dislike with being bad at things haha